Saturday, April 12, 2008

Protests Against HLS Customer Novartis and Supplier Staples Continue

Demo 1: Staples @ Union Square (HLS Supplier)

Activists headed to the Staples at Union Square to reach out to the public about the fact that the company has been caught delivering supplies to Huntingdon Life Sciences, a barbaric animal death laboratory that tortures and murders 500 animals every day of the week.

Staples employees thought the protest (and the killing of animals at HLS) was a huge joke, running outside waving "easy buttons" like crazy people, pointing and laughing at the pictures of animals mutilated and murdered at HLS, taking pictures and videos, trying to pose with the demonstration, etc.

HEY STAPLES, this does NOT make your company look good! Potential customers saw what your employees thought was so funny (monkeys in a panic as tubes running poisons are shoved down their noses, beagle puppies bloodied and thrown in garbage bags, cats so experimented on they're barely recognizable as felines) and recoiled in disgust! It's HORRIBLE that you're allowing your employees to act in such a disrespectful manner towards other Earthlings - you should be ashamed of yourselves, collectively.

Once again, this was an excellent location for outreach. Activists ran into not one but two vegans who already knew of HLS and their track record for animal cruelty. One had just gotten done shopping at Staples, unaware of their connection to HLS, and declared he would return his merchandise and never shop at Staples again.

Staples, it's time to drop HLS. This has gone on long enough.

Demo 2: Wayne Merkelson, Vice President, Novartis (HLS Customer)

Activists walked a few blocks to Wayne Merkelson's fancy highrise, down the street from the Union Square movie theatres. Wayne is an executive with Novartis Pharmaceuticals who contracts the killing at HLS - the blood is on his hands!

Activists unrolled a huge banner depicting the bloody remains of a beagle puppy who lost her life inside the walls of HLS and distributed signs detailing Novartis' connection to the puppy killers. Voices rang out and activists were shocked at the incredible acoustics this location offers.

"PUPPY KILLER - LEAVE TOWN" they shouted, their voices booming as if in a tunnel, and people from blocks away turned and gaped at the demonstration, desperately trying to figure out WHO was killing puppies and WHY they would be so cruel.

Many of Merkelson's neighbors came out to see what all the fuss was about, taking literature and promising to talk to Wayne - anyone who had a problem with the noise was reminded of our free speech laws with deafening chants of "The First Amendment is Our Right - We Will Not Give Up This Fight!"

One particularly funny moment came as a man and his young daughter passed the protest and he inquired what was going on. On learning that activists dared demonstrate at someone's home (oh no!) he declared that the campaigners were involved in GUERILLA WARFARE! The activists laughed in his face and called him ignorant. A peaceful demonstration is hardly on the same level as planting IEDs in Iraq or boobytrapping the jungles of Vietnam... Activists rolled their eyes and hoped the young daughter would grow up to think on her own rather than just repeating everything her misguided father tells her.

Video Clip:

Wayne Merkelson - VP - Novartis